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Imagetext exhibitions feature contemporary portraits
taken by Leib Kopman. These portraits are conceptually linked to
biographical pages constructed by Carla Shapiro. Together, the portraits
and biographical pages form a unique interactive exhibition.
Click on a portrait detail to reveal the full portrait or the
biography excerpt below to read the full biography.
RWANDAN
GENOCIDE SURVIVORS
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Gilbert
Rwirangira
My family lived in Kigali. I had two brothers, Emile and Theophile,
and a half brother, James. I attended Apacope College, a private
school started by Tutsi parents, as only very few Tutsi were allowed
to go to the public high school....
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Rosine U.
I was a member of a family of six children. Even before the genocide, when we were going to primary school, there was tension. People used to call us "inyenzi" (cockroaches)...
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Charles
Butera
My mother and father were both teachers in Kigali. My father taught
for 30 years. My mother also worked in the neighbourhood church.
She knew and helped everyone in the parish. When the genocide came
all those years of service did not save them...
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Angelique
Semuhungu
I am from Kibungo, a region on the north-eastern border of Rwanda.
My family was a large one. I had nine brothers and four sisters.
I was the youngest girl....
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Freda
Rosenblatt
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Max
Eisen
...My normal family life came to a sudden end in April, 1944 when
my parents, grandparents, siblings, an aunt and uncle and myself
were rounded up during the Hungarian deportations of Jews to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp...
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Robert Weiss
When the Nazis came into power in 1933 I was in elementary school and all of a sudden I had to play by myself during recess as no children could play with a "Jewish child"....
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Stan
Ostern
I was born in 1935 in Stryj, Poland (now the Ukraine). The town
had a population of 32,000, of which 12,000 were Jews. As I was
only four years old when the war broke out, I have no memory of
many of my family members; I know that they were killed in the Holocaust.
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George
Salamon
...After spending almost two years in a refugee camp, I finally
got to Canada in 1958 and began a new life. I married my wife Anne
(Aleihem HaShalom) in 1961, and my children Steven and Michael were
born in 1965 and 1967 respectively....
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Lili
Schiff
...The Germans invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940. I was afraid, but
I didn't ask questions. I knew that horrible things were happening
to the Jews. I had to wear a yellow star....
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Rudolf
Herlinger
...Two days before Hitler entered Czechoslovakia, on March 13, 1939,
I managed to leave Boskovice on an illegal transport to Palestine.
After a nerve-racking four month wait outside the British blockade,
I got ashore on the 4th of July, 1939, in Haifa....
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Bronia
Beker
I was born in Kozowa, a small town in Poland and was always happy
that I had a large family and lots of friends. I was 18 years
old when the war broke out, shattering my life....
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